The invention pertains to a process for merging in particular batches of mail items such as letters, each previously ordered according to the order of distribution of the mail items in the mailman""s round, so as to constitute a single batch of mail items which is also ordered according to the order of distribution of the mail items in the mailman""s round.
In mail distribution offices, it is usual practice to merge or bundle together batches of mail items which originate from various sorting offices so as to constitute a single batch of mail items which is prepared for the mailman""s round. Hitherto, the merging of these batches of mail items has been carried out manually and therefore requires a great deal of time. EP-834354 discloses a process according to the preamble of claim 1 wherein the destacking-units, disposed in succession along the conveyor path, deliver the objects directly to the conveyor in a time sequence determined by their transport along the conveyor path. U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,672 discloses a process for merging batches of objects wherein the destacking units deliver the objects to the conveyor through a recalculation buffer.
The purpose of the invention is to propose a process for automatically merging several batches of mail items with short transit time loops associated to the destacking units.
To this end, the subject of the invention is a process for merging in particular batches of mail items as defined in claim 1.
With the process according to the invention, several batches of mail items can be automatically merged in a single pass. The postal address recovered by the reading device can be a bar code which is now widely used in postal sorting offices.
It has been observed that it is preferable to use several storage loops of low storage capacity associated with a destacking unit rather than a single storage loop of larger storage capacity so as to transfer the mail items more speedily to the conveyor. The number of storage loops associated with a destacking unit and the storage capacity of each loop is a compromise between the speed of merging of the batches of mail items and the interclassification window required between batches of mail items.
An exemplary implementation of the process according to the invention is described hereinafter in detail and illustrated in the drawings.